On Friday, for the first time in four days, not all precious metals declined. However, they all still posted hefty weekly losses, led by palladium and directly followed by silver.
Snapping a three-session losing streak, gold for August delivery climbed by $5.90, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,929.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold prices posted a 2.1% weekly drop after dipping by 0.3% the previous week. On Thursday, they ended at their lowest price since March 18. The precious metal has risen 5.7% year to date.
Looking forward to the upcoming week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"This week, 22 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Among the participants, 11 analysts, or 50%, were bearish on gold in the near term. At the same time, nine analysts, or 41%, were bullish for next week and two analysts, or 9%, saw prices trading sideways.
Meanwhile, 966 votes were cast in online polls. Of these, 395 respondents, or 41%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 403, or 42%, said it would be lower, while 168 voters, or 17%, were neutral in the near term."
Down for a fourth session in a row, silver for July delivery slipped by 11.3 cents, or 0.5%, to close at $22.354 an ounce. The settlement was the lowest since March 16. Silver prices plummeted by 7.3% this week after falling by 1.2% last week. Overall, they are 7% lower compared to the previous year.
In other precious metals, both on Friday and throughout the week:
-
Down for a fifth consecutive session, July platinum shed $2.80, or 0.3%, to end at $923.70 an ounce, for a 6.4% weekly loss.
- Up for the first time in four days, palladium for September delivery advanced by $6.40, or 0.5%, to finish at $1,279 an ounce, only gently trimming its weekly decline to 9.7%. On Thursday, palladium settled at its lowest price since January 2019.
Looking at their performance since the beginning of the year, platinum has fallen by 14.7%, and palladium has tumbled by 28.9%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
A week ago Tuesday, June 13, the U.S. Mint published bullion sales gains for the first time this month. No further sales have been reported since then. The table below presents a breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products sold, with columns indicating the number of coins sold (not total ounces) during different time periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday / This Week | Last Week | March | April | May | June | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 16,000 | 211,000 | 159,500 | 60,500 | 16,000 | 606,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 8,000 | 18,000 | 1,000 | 73,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 4,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 32,000 | 4,000 | 132,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 15,000 | 10,000 | 35,000 | 80,000 | 15,000 | 340,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 7,000 | 73,000 | 61,000 | 47,000 | 7,000 | 266,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 725,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 1,593,000 | 725,000 | 8,967,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 3,500 | 7,500 | 500 | 1,200 | 3,500 | 12,700 |
But Kaiser you know what goes down must come up and vice versa. We’ve lived to see several turn arounds in our life times.